Further Proof Of Bandwidth Rationing
I would argue that DirecPC rations bandwidth to end users
often cheating them of the performance they are paying for.
This bandwidth rationing does not just take place during
peak usage hours, but rather it may have something to do
with the end users behaviour. I mostly use my DirecPC for
downloading Game Demo's that usually are 30MB in size. I
use utilities like Gozilla! to control, moniter performance,
and auto resume downloads that get hung. I often download
two files from completely differenct servers and noticed
the following. When I use my Modem on my regular ISP, one
server may download a file faster then the other one. But
when I use DirecPC for the exact same session, with the
exact same connection, and number of hops, both files will
download at nearly the same rate. You could conlude that
one file is being throttled back by DirecPC in order to
ration the bandwidth to me, which combined is still much
less then the bandwidth advertised. I continue to feel
that Huges is cheating customers out of the performance
they are paying for, but have little recourse to do much
about it, other than bitching on this forum. DirecPC has
no end user forum, probably because it would be full of
complaints like mine, thus bad for business. Huges also
is doing a lousey jobs of marketing DirectDuo and DirecPC.
You can now get Satellite service in my area from another
vendor, and the Dish is Free! DirecPC should make the
Duo add-on Free to it's existing customer base to upgrade
to in order for them to get more Cable service subscribers,
but in their infinite stupidity, they continue to charge
for an upgrade that is more trouble then it's worth. This
whole market is in limbo as there are now 16 million cable
modem ready customers out there, but only 100,000 of them
have actually gone for the upgrade. Either the cable modem
companies are building in the wrong demographic, or people
are simply not willing to pay as much a premium for bandwidth
as computer geeks like me imagine. Hell, I'd sleep on the
sidewalk all night to be the first to sign up for a cable
modem if they ever offerred it in my area... |
